Student dies in single-car accident

Junior Tyler Koss lived in Wright Quad with Jared Shears during their freshman year and worked out with Shears beginning in the spring semester and continuing through their sophomore year.

“He was just an all-around amazing guy,” Koss said. “He was always there to hang out, never busy for anything. He was a really good motivator because when I started working out with him, I wasn’t really into it. He would motivate me and was just a really good leader in that sense.”

Shears, a junior from LaFontaine, Ind.. died Friday in a single-car collision on Old State Road 15. The Wabash County Sheriff’s Department received a call about the accident at 1:58 a.m. Friday morning and responded to the scene.

According to a news release, “initial facts show that Shears was southbound on Old State Road 15 at a high rate of speed as he crossed the northbound lane and left the roadway before impacting two telephone poles and a cement post.”

Currently, sheriff’s department personnel and Wabash County Police Crash Reconstructionists continue to investigate what might have caused the
vehicle to exit the roadway. Toxicology results are pending.

When the two boys were in the sixth grade, Shears and Jared Harnish rode dirt bikes over a jump that Harnish’s dad built.

“I got there late and was getting used to it,” Harnish said. “And he said, ‘Oh, it’s nothing, go for it.’ I ended up crashing and broke my collarbone. I don’t blame him, but he definitely had his word in there. He liked to push you to do things you wouldn’t normally try. He was good at motivating you that way.”

Harnish said he met Shears in fourth grade and was good friends with him since. He also roomed with Shears during their sophomore year at IU.

“He’s definitely ‘live life to the fullest,’” Harnish said. “He used to ride dirt bikes and crazy stuff like that, anything to get adrenaline pumping.”

Shears majored in physical therapy, Harnish said, because he liked the human body and helping people.

“He was an honest guy,” he said. “He’d tell you straight up how he felt and wouldn’t lie about it.”

Koss said he remembers one specific time when he was working out with Shears but was not in the mood because he had previously pulled a muscle in his arm.

“I said, ‘Jared, I’m done. My arm’s bothering me,’” Koss said. “And he said being injured is something serious, but being hurt isn’t. You have to work through being hurt.

“He’s going to be missed, and I know he’s not going to be forgotten.”